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KARL KRAUCH, leading defendant in the Farben trial at Nurnberg took the witness stand in his own defense on January 13, 1948. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Directors of Farben and member of Goering's staff in the Office of the Four-Year Plan, he has been accused with 23 other officials of Farben of aiding the Nazi government with vast sums of money, and Farben products of rubber, gasoline, and explosives to be used in re-arming Germany for war. The Farben official in his first day at the stand under direct examination told the court that he once told Goering that "The future of Germany's economic life lies in close cooperation with the industry of the United States, no matter how the war ended".Citing a pre-war visit to Henry and Edsel Ford in Detroit, he was so impressed that he made the report to Goering, "That we must apply American production methods in German industry if we want to get any results". Krauch further stated that he advised against the absorption of Ford's German plants by Hermann Goering under the nationalization Four-Year Plan on the grounds that it would create ill-will in the United States.